For many years it was the conventional wisdom that, when it came to food, “low-fat” meant “healthy.” But a growing amount of research today shows that’s not the case.
In fact, recent evidence suggests that the healthiest diet might be one high in fat – as long as it’s the right kind of fat.

Randy Evans, one of two master’s-level dietitians here in Integrative Medicine at the University of Kansas Physicians, is an advocate of a diet that’s particularly high in healthy fats: the ketogenic diet. This diet calls for at least a 1-to-1 ratio of healthy fat to net carbohydrates plus protein. That means that if you add up the grams of carbs (minus grams of fiber) and protein you consume in a day, it should be equal to (or less than) the grams of healthy fat you consume.

It’s an about-face from the low-fat diets of old. And it’s a diet Randy recommends for many patients with chronic health conditions.

Why is it effective? The human body is built to run on fat as its primary fuel, Randy explains. A diet high in healthy fats can prevent you from getting hungry all the time, reduce inflammation, spark weight loss, and give you more energy.

“To me, it's very simple,” Randy says. “A human being is made of fat. Our brain's mostly fat. Our hormones are fat. We're really fat machines in a lot of ways. It kind of makes sense that it would work well for us.”

So, which fats are healthy? A few examples: olive oil, coconut oil, salmon and tuna, nuts and seeds, and avocados. The fats to avoid are those found in processed food and the vegetable oils commonly used to make fried food.

If you’re intrigued by the ketogenic diet, you can take a deeper dive in the video below. Last year, Randy was interviewed by Dr. Joseph Mercola, a star in the world of integrative and functional medicine, for his website, mercola.com. And you can watch their full discussion about the ketogenic diet right here: